David Wertheimer, CEO of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center, calls the iPad “a powerful opportunity for print media publishers to provide a new generation of readers a new kind of product that they may be willing to pay for. And if those publishers can figure out how to take advantage of the unique, interactive, multimedia capabilities of the device, the publications could take on a whole new relevance to young consumers.”Another surprise: much of the demo was devoted to showing off the iPad as a device for creating content, not just consuming it. Apple gave demos of iPad versions of its word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, and priced the apps aggressively at just $9.99.

But David Wertheimer, CEO of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center, notes: “What it does for entertainment media is not quite as clear (yet).” He calls it “definitely the most impressive personal media platform out there,” with “loads of potential to be the must-have personal media environment,” but it doesn’t yet run Flash videos, which are a Web staple, and its future really depends on what app developers do with it.

If they embrace iPad as they have the iPhone, which already has 140,000 iPhone apps — all of which will work on the iPad — “You may just find this category of product becomes as important as a television,” Wertheimer says.

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Research into what consumers want has begun in earnest. Sony is partnering with CBS to study what audiences expect from home 3D. Last year the Consumer Electronics Association and the Entertainment Technology Center released a study in which 50 percent of surveyed consumers said they would pay more for a 3D TV; 40 percent of the respondents preferred 3D to 2D.

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“It’s hard to say if the iPad will cause an increase in readership,” Bryan Gonzalez of the Entertainment Technology Center wrote in an e-mail to The News-Press. “But the Nook, Kindle, iPad and so on will help in the bigger picture of getting a new generation of readers to look at digital books, digital newspapers and digital magazines as the norm.”

Gonzalez said the iPad could change the way consumers surf the Web away from home. “For many consumers, laptops are a huge convenience, yet space is still limited in spaces such as a Starbucks table or in classrooms,” he said. “The iPad allows users to e-mail, surf the Web and view multimedia in new areas such as the beach without sticking out.”

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The outlook for the iPad won’t be clear until software developers start showing what they can do with the device, says David Wertheimer, CEO and executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California.

“A lot of people said, ‘Wow, that’s beautiful, but it’s like a really big iPhone. And what do I need that for?’” he said. “We won’t know the answer until we see the kinds of apps that will come out for the device.”

Those apps could include multimedia versions of newspapers, magazines and textbooks, he says.

Wertheimer points out that the iPad also is a first-generation product that Apple is likely to quickly refine and improve.

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“People will do the cost-benefit analysis in their own heads and say, ‘If I can read books on one thing and read books, newspapers and CNNMoney.com on this other thing and get a full color experience and get apps,’ it’s not a very difficult decision,” said David Wertheimer, executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California.

“The out-of-the-box experience of the Kindle is unparalleled,” said Wertheimer. “The average user doesn’t have to think about the
network, username, or the authentication process.”

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David Wertheimer, executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, was bullish on the prospects of the iPad as a harbinger of change in mobile personal computing. Wertheimer said the device appeared impressive, but the prospect of hundreds, if not thousands, of independent software developers making new applications for the iPad is what could help it succeed.

For Apple’s popular iPhone and iPod Touch devices, consumers can choose from more than 140,000 applications in the company’s App Store to run on the handheld sets. Those same applications will work on the iPad, and that huge library of apps will help Apple distinguish its iPad from other tablet competitors, Wertheimer said.

“I think what you saw today was a launching pad, and we will only know the power of the rocket that launches off this
pad when we see the apps that get developed for it,” Wertheimer said. “The base device provides a really powerful
foundation, but what will make this device compelling for people will be the applications.”

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David Wertheimer, CEO and executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center@USC (ETC@USC), thinks the iPad, like the iPhone, is only the beginning of the tablet PC market and there will be a lot more to come from Apple and its competitors. “The iPad is a beautiful, thin, letter-sized iPhone, but with loads of potential,” says Wertheimer. “The base platform is the critical foundation — but as a foundation, it’s a really beautiful iPhone XXL. However, as with the iPhone, the apps that take advantage of the new form factor will make all the difference. What we saw today was only a foreshadowing of what we will see once Apple sets the developer community loose on the platform.”

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“For years, people have been concerned that the Web will put publishers out of business,” said David Wertheimer, CEO and executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, in an e-mail. “If you saw the New York Times on the iPad today, it should give you great hope that high-quality publishers will be able to build an entirely new business model on devices like the iPad, especially when publishers focus on what makes them relevant on a high-performance interactive platform, [as opposed to] a passive reading/viewing canvas like print.”

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Research into what consumers want has begun in earnest. Sony is partnering with CBS to study what audiences expect from home 3D. Last year the Consumer Electronics Association and the Entertainment Technology Center released a study in which 50 percent of surveyed consumers said they would pay more for a 3D TV; 40 percent of the respondents preferred 3D to 2D.

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Link to coverage
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Research into what consumers want has begun in earnest. Sony is partnering with CBS to study what audiences expect from home 3D. Last year the Consumer Electronics Association and the Entertainment Technology Center released a study in which 50 percent of surveyed consumers said they would pay more for a 3D TV; 40 percent of the respondents preferred 3D to 2D.

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